1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an integrated optical device for a magneto-optical recording/reading head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, many efforts have been made to develop an optical recording/reading method, an optical recording apparatus and a medium used therefor, which can satisfy various requirements including high density, large capacity, high speed access and high recording/reading speed. Of various optical recording/reading methods, the magneto-optical recording/reading method is most attractive due to its unique advantages that information can be erased after use and new information can be written thereon. Such a magneto-optical recording/reading method is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,387. A tracking system of a magneto-optical disk is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,876,842. In the art, "to record" is "to write" or "to store", and "to read" is "to reproduce" or "to retrieve".
In recording of information on magneto-optical disks, a major cost item is the optical head. Currently discrete components are used to achieve the optical elements required to generate, detect and guide the light to and from the various parts of the storage device and media. To make optical storage competitive financially with magnetic recording technology, a significant cost reduction is required in the optical system used.